The Best Cell Phone Plans For College Students

Cell phones are a must have for college students everywhere. Many college students start leaving their parents' family plan, but don't know where to go to find the best deals.

Cell phone plans aren't cheap. You have the cost of the phone, the monthly plan cost - and each company does something different for pricing. It can be hard to figure out what is the best cell phone plan. That's why we've broken down all the options we could find that would benefit college students.

Here's what factors we were looking at when rating cell phone plans for college students:

Unlimited Talk, Text, and Data (or as close to unlimited data as possible)

Monthly Charges and Pricing

Phone Prices

Coverage Options

We selected these key areas because college students use text and data - a lot! It's estimated that the average college student uses upwards of 5GB of data per month. And that was before Pokemon Go! came out!

Plus, they need reasonable pricing for their plans. They also want smartphones, but they don't want to pay $100s for the latest phones. Finally, college students are traveling - they are at school for part of the year, home at other times, and sometimes even traveling across the country. College students need cell phones that give them coverage everywhere.

After looking at all of the major plans and companies out there, here are the best cell phone plans for college students.

The Best Cell Phone Plans

Republic Wireless

Plans range from $15 to $90 per month

Unlimited Talk, Text, and Data

Uses WiFi as much as possible, which is available on all college campuses and at most homes

Please review the current charges and fee information associated with the plans listed, be sure to review the terms & conditions and fee schedule of each plan before applying. They change constantly and I have reported what I believe to be the most accurate information.

Republic Wireless

Here's the full breakdown of Republic Wireless and why we love them. Republic Wireless uses a hybrid system for their phones. They allow you to use WiFi and cell service for data, which can save you a lot of money. As a result, they pass that savings along to you.

As a college student, every college campus, coffee shop, and likely your home, has WiFi. As a result, you're going to be in WiFi coverage and free data coverage almost all the time. The only time you won't be is while traveling.

As such, Republic Wireless has a lot of plan options that are all based on how much cell data you need to use.

All of Republic Wireless' plans include unlimited talk and text. Otherwise, you have the following options for data usage:

Republic Wireless Pricing 2016

Data Usage

Monthly Price

1 GB

$20/mo

2 GB

$30/mo

4 GB

$45/mo

6 GB

$60/mo

10 GB

$90/mo

We estimate that the average college student would be on the 6GB data plan, which would run $60/mo. This is one of the best pricing options, and why we recommend Republic Wireless for college student cell phone plans.

Sprint

Sprint is our second choice for cell phone plans for college students because they offer the lowest price plans that have unlimited data. We think that Sprint is a great choice for college students that don't have great WiFi access, and as a result, will be using more cell network data.

Sprint is also one of the last providers that still offer 2 year contracts, but they do allow you to lease a phone if you prefer.

All of Sprint's plans include unlimited talk and text. Otherwise, you have the following options for data usage. Spring charges you an "access charge" to use their network, which, sadly, has also become common. Sprint also throttles your data once you reach 23GB of monthly usage, regardless of your plan.

Sprint Pricing 2016

Data Usage

Monthly Charge

Access Charge

Total Monthly Price

1 GB

$20/mo

$45/mo

$65/mo

3 GB

$30/mo

$45/mo

$75/mo

6 GB

$45/mo

$45/mo

$90/mo

12 GB

$60/mo

$45/mo

$105/mo

24 GB

$80/mo

$45/mo

$125/mo

40 GB

$100/mo

$45/mo

$145/mo

Unlimited

$75/mo

$25/mo

$100/mo

We recommend Sprint because, based on our estimate of needing 6GB per month, the $90/mo plan is the next best price. However, Sprint is just one of two companies that offer unlimited data, and at just $100/mo, that's also the best price. If you need more cell data versus WiFi data, this is the way to go.

Verizon

​Verizon advertises a plan starting at $35 per month, but this plan only includes unlimited talk and text. However, this plan only has 2GB of data usage. For college students, this is simply too low - especially because Verizon doesn't allow voice calls over WiFi automatically. If you want to use more data, the plan pricing jumps up significantly.

Verizon offers options, such as $15 for an extra 1GB, and Safety Mode, where you can pay $5/mo and not face overages, but you get throttled down in data.

Verizon also makes you lease a phone through them. They don't allow you to sign a 2 year agreement any longer to get a discounted phone. With leasing, you typically pay more for the phone versus a 2 year agreement, so we don't like it.

What keeps Verizon off the best cell phone plan list is that it doesn't offer unlimited data. Not cool.​ They also charge a $20/mo Access Charge fee. Here's how their plans price out.

Verizon Pricing 2016

Data Usage

Monthly Charge

Access Charge

Total Monthly Price

2 GB

$35/mo

$20/mo

$55/mo

4 GB

$50/mo

$20/mo

$70/mo

8 GB

$70/mo

$20/mo

$90/mo

16 GB

$90/mo

$20/mo

$110/mo

24 GB

$110/mo

$20/mo

$130/mo

Don't forget, if you want it, Verizon also charges $5/mo for Safety Mode, and $15/GB for overages. As such, we can't recommend Verizon as one of our choices for a cell phone plan for college students.

AT&T

AT&T Wireless used to be one of the cheapest providers, but over the last few years, we've seen their prices steadily rise to be one of the most expensive cell phone plan providers.

AT&T also no longer offers an unlimited data plan, which is disappointing. All of their plans do offer unlimited talk and text, which is on par with other companies, and they offer rollover for your data.

They do charge an Access Charge per phone, and you must do installment payments when purchasing a new phone. This is confusing and it appears that you'll pay more for the phone versus signing a 2 year agreement.

Here's what AT&T's pricing looks like currently.​

AT&T Pricing 2016

Data Usage

Monthly Charge

Access Charge

Total Monthly Price

200 MB

$20/mo

$25/mo

$45/mo

2 GB

$30/mo

$25/mo

$55/mo

5 GB

$50/mo

$25/mo

$75/mo

15 GB

$100/mo

$15/mo

$115/mo

20 GB

$140/mo

$15/mo

$130/mo

25 GB

$175/mo

$15/mo

$190/mo

30 GB

$225/mo

$15/mo

$240/mo

40 GB

$300/mo

$15/mo

$315/mo

50 GB

$375/mo

$15/mo

$390/mo

If you go over on data, ATT charges $15/GB for each 1GB you go over. Why we dislike ATT is how they structure their plans. They seem to know that 6GB is the sweet spot for data usage, so they make their plan either 5GB or 15GB. You can do the 5GB at $75/mo and pay for extra data, or overpay for the 15GB plan.

When you combine that with the way you have to pay for your phone in installment payments, we dislike ATT currently.​

T Mobile

T Mobile was a close competitor to being in the top cell phone plans for college students because they do offer pretty good pricing. Right now, you can get unlimited talk, text, and data for just $95 per month. It's just a bit higher than what you're going to find on Republic Wireless, and it's $5 less per month that what you're going to pay on Sprint for unlimited.

T Mobile offers unlimited talk and text, and they let you rollover your data each month, up to 20GB. They also never "shut off" your data or charge you more, they simply throttle your data to make it slow. The nice thing about that is that there are no overages.

T Mobile's pricing is fairly simple and straightforward, which is refreshing. They also offer 2 year contracts for your phone, which is great.

Comments

T-Mobile also lets you have roaming data WITHOUT EXTRA CHARGES for basically every country you would want to travel to. Also without extra charge, you can text/call/use data the way you would state-side throughout North America (aka in Canada and in Mexico) which is great if you’re from there going to school in the US and return home often. Both these things are simply add ons you can do online or with an agent on the phone.

I went looking on the internet to compare phone companies with the best plans for a college student and this site answered every single one of my questions! Currently forwarding the web address to my parents to switch our plans over because I always eat up all the data!

We recommend Sprint because, based on our estimate of needing 5GB per month, the $90/mo plan is the next best price (which is Sprint’s 6GB plan). We base that off of the 5GB average that college students use.

But $95 or $100 for truly unlimited – it would most likely come down to network in your area.